For Vienna native, spreading the gospel is a family affair

For Vienna native, spreading the gospel is a family affair

Shamus Ian Fatzinger/Fairfax County Times
Christ Church Vienna Lead Pastor Johnny Kurcina Jr. prays with Caroline Berry, Sarah Roper and Holly Berry during Sunday’s service at Louise Archer Elementary School in Vienna.

Shamus Ian Fatzinger/Fairfax County Times
Lead Pastor Johnny Kurcina Jr. sings along with members of the Christ Church Vienna during Sunday’s service at Louise Archer Elememtery School in Vienna.

Shamus Ian Fatzinger/Fairfax County Times
Lead Pastor Johnny Kurchina, Jr. leads Sunday’s service at Christ Church Vienna at Louise Archer Elementary School in Vienna.

Shamus Ian Fatzinger/Fairfax County Times
The Christ Church Vienna meets inside the cafeteria of Louise Archer Elementary School in Vienna.

Shamus Ian Fatzinger/Fairfax County Times
(From right) Brian Whisler, Riley Whisler, 15, Matthew Morgan and Krista Cowan perform during Sunday’s service at Christ Church Vienna in Louise Archer Elememtery School in Vienna.

Shamus Ian Fatzinger/Fairfax County Times
John Kurcina Sr. greets everyone who attends the service his son, Christ Church of Vienna Lead Pastor Johnny Kurcina Jr., is leading inside the cafeteria of Louise Archer Elementary School.

Shamus Ian Fatzinger/Fairfax County Times
Christ Church Vienna Lead Pastor Johnny Kurcina Jr. prays with Caroline Berry, Sarah Roper and Holly Berry during Sunday’s service at Louise Archer Elementary School in Vienna.

For Johnny Kurcina Jr., the scripture of Mark 6:4; "A prophet is without honor only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own home," has special meaning.

“I’m determined to prove that wrong,” the 36-year-old said.

Amid controversy and court battles between the local Episcopal and Anglican Dioceses, Kurcina — a 1993 graduate of Madison High School — recently started an Anglican church in his native Vienna. He already is ministering to a congregation of about 250 parishioners, and that number continues to grow.

An offshoot of the Anglican half of The Falls Church, which has been embroiled in a legal land battle about the church property for several years with its Episcopal cousins, Kurcina began Christ Church Vienna late last year and continues to be amazed with its success.

Services take place in the Louise Archer Elementary School cafeteria, where parishioners sit in plastic chairs and the walls are adorned with lunch menus.

“Holding services in a school cafeteria does hold some challenges,” Kurcina joked. “We are not allowed to use wine for communion so we use grape juice, and our candles look real but the flame is really a small flickering light bulb because we are not allowed to use real flame candles on school grounds.”

Despite the obstacles, the church continues to draw new parishioners.

“My idea was just to bring Jesus to anyone who would accept him,” Kurcina said. “I thought we would perhaps garner interest from about 50 people —mostly friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances. It has been through the grace of God that we have been able to minister to so many more.”

Growing up in Vienna, Kurcina said he was a typical teenager. He was active in sports and dreamed being accepted into a military academy such as U.S. Military Acadmey at West Point or the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. But then he got involved with a Christian youth group and became aware of a talent he never knew he had.

“I began to see that my faith and love for God began affecting others,” he said. “When I was 16, I would hold Bible study sessions for kids a few years younger than myself and I took notice that I was actually getting through to them.”

After graduating from the University of Virginia, Kurcina attended a seminary in Massachusetts and eventually moved to Bristol, England, to pursue a doctorate in New Testament studies.

While there, he said he felt a strong urge to return home to his Vienna roots.

“My family is strongly rooted here,” he said. “My mother also graduated from Madison in the 1960s and my father moved here from Pennsylvania around that same time. He opened, and still owns, a business — John Edwards Hair Design — in town.

On any given Sunday, Kurcina’s father, mother and wife can be seen helping out with the services.

“My father works as a greeter as people come in,” Kurcina said. “Sometimes people who don’t know he is my dad come up to me and say ‘that guy looks just like an older version of you.”

Vienna native Brian Berry, who went to UVA with Kurcina and currently sits on the Christ Church board of directors, attributes the church’s success to the fact Kurcina and his extended family are so charismatic and entrenched in the community.

“Johnny is the real deal,” he said. “He is not an egghead and doesn’t come across as ‘holier than thou’ or anything like that. In his spare time he coaches football, baseball and his love for Vienna shows. People know him and his family, and see him as a regular guy from the neighborhood.”

For now, Kurcina says the Louise Archer Elementary School cafeteria works fine for the church, but that it soon might no longer meet its needs.

“We won’t stay there long-term,” he said. “We are not a static church, we are dynamic and we want to grow, bringing Jesus to as many as we can.”

That sentiment has not gone unnoticed within the local Mid-Atlantic Anglican Diocese.

“This new church is thriving as it stands on the truth of Scripture and answers the call of Christ to spread the Good News,” Bishop John Guernsey said. “Christ Church Vienna is an excellent example of our Diocese's commitment to spreading the Gospel. The congregation is living proof that you don't need a steeple to grow in mission, ministry and numbers.”